The application claims priority to German Application No. 10 2004 012 525.2, which was filed on Mar. 15, 2004.
The invention relates to a sliding roof system that includes at least one cover, two guide rails, and first and second carriages that are movable in the guide rails. The sliding roof system also includes first and second holding parts that each are coupled with one carriage and a rear edge of the cover.
In conventional sliding roof systems, by moving the first and second carriages in the guide rails, the cover can first be lifted or lowered at a rear edge, and can then be moved as a whole. As long as there is only one cover that is to be shifted to the rear, so as to lie higher than a roof skin, the required lifting movement of the cover can be easily provided by known guide mechanisms.
Recently, however, sliding roof systems have utilized two covers, one lying behind the other, instead of a single cover. These sliding roof systems include a first cover that can be shifted in order to expose a roof opening, and a second cover that is stationary. Both the first and second covers consist of a transparent material so that a very large transparent roof area is produced as a whole. For visual reasons it would be desirable to configure the first and second covers to be identical. At a minimum, it would be desired that the first and second covers have the same width, at least in the region of adjoining edges. Moreover, the first and second covers should have as wide a configuration as possible. With the known guide mechanisms, however, it is not possible to shift the first cover above an external surface of the second cover. The guide mechanism mounted underneath the first cover has a slightly smaller width than the first cover and, accordingly has a slightly smaller width than a front edge of the first cover. For this reason the second cover has been traditionally configured to have a smaller width than the first cover, so that the guide mechanism of the first cover can laterally run past the edges of the second cover.
It is the object of the invention to provide a sliding roof system with which a cover can be moved even if the cover is to be shifted over another component that has the same width as the cover.